Footsteps to tomorrow
Footsteps to tomorrow (Asu e no Ashiato, 明日への足跡) is Episode 50 of the Diamond no Ace Anime series. The episode follows the storyline from chapters 146 to 147 of the manga. Summary Known as "The Hopeless Year", Rei shares to Eijun and Furuya about the time the third years first came to Seidou; and the freshmen pitchers couldn't believe what they're about to hear. Synopsis After practicing at the bullpen, Sawamura asked Chris if Azuma had left (he wants to apologize for hitting him earlier). Chris says 'yes' and tells Sawamura and Nori that Azuma left a few words for them. Kataoka instructs Chris to have the pitchers stretch since they're done with practice and tells the other players that they'll have a pre-game field practice. The pitchers watch and Sawamura thinks the practice is intense while Furuya wonders about what Azuma said that the third years were trash before. Rei asks if he doesn't believe what Azuma said as she approaches both he and Sawamura. She reveals to them that when the third years first joined, it was known as the "Hopeless Year". Spring of two years past, new students joins the baseball team and introduce themselves. At practice, Isashiki and Tanba practice at the bullpen while Kataoka and Rei observe. Isashiki pitches nowhere near the strike zone while Tanba apologizes a lot. Yuki, who said he can defend anywhere, frustrates his senpai's with his continuous catching errors. Miyauchi is told to gain more muscle while others comment on Ryosuke's large pants. Chris is the first one to join the first string and Azuma comments that his fellow first years are terrible and hopeless, but Chris wonders. After their senpai's defeat at the West Tokyo tournament qualifiers, a new team emerged. Rei and Kataoka tells Isashiki to play outfield, surprising him. The next day, they run around the field and Sakai falls down. Isashiki grabs Sakai's shoulder and reminds him that he's not the only one having a hard time. Isashiki let's go and Sakai stands up. Isashiki later on sees Yuki practice his batting in the evening and Yuki tells him that he's been doing that every after practice. Isashiki joins him. Ryosuke and Masuko showed up wanting to join as well. And the others joined later on. At a scrimmage, Yuki hits a homerun, his peers are overjoyed and Isashiki shouts that they're gonna follow right behind him. Back to the present, Rei tells Sawamura and Furuya that they(the present third years) came to Seidou with a strong heart. Kataoka wraps up the field practice and the first string stand beside each other on the field thinking that they've done what they could and just have to give their all at the Finals. Characters Characters in italic are only seen briefly and have yet to make a proper appearance. *'Sawamura Eijun' *'Furuya Satoru' *'Tanba Koichiro' *'Kominato Ryosuke' *'Azuma Kiyokuni' *'Fujiwara Takako' *'Jun Isashiki' *'Yuki Tetsuya' *'Takigawa Chris Yuu' *'Miyuki Kazuya' *'Masuko Tooru' *'Kataoka Tesshin'Category:Anime Category:Episodes